Under The Lamplight

An April shower of fantastic reads!

By Caroline Leavitt
Published: Apr 04, 2008

The Fiction Class
by Susan Breen
Plume Original Paperback $14
Truth and fiction blur their boundaries in Breen’s poignant debut about the stories we tell about our lives. As writing teacher Arabella Hicks guides her students through the mechanics of plot, dialogue and character, she struggles with her frayed relationship with her mother Vera, who’s now in a nursing home. But when Vera asks Arabella to teach her to write, both women begin a learning process that is as startling as it is moving. Extra credit offering: nifty writing exercises from Breen.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
by Mary Roach
W.W. Norton $24.95
Is there a science to better sex? Hilarious writer Mary Roach gleefully guides readers through centuries of sexual research to ponder questions that range from the sublime to the absurdly silly. Can we think ourselves to orgasm? Can orgasm boost fertility? And how is the sexuality of rats affected if they are made to wear polyester pants for a year? From 16th century France where impotence was a crime, to present day sex toy factories where many devout workers keep rosaries in their cars, Roach’s investigational skills coupled with her daffy sense of humor are spot on. Smart and lots of fun.

Split: A Memoir of Divorce
by Suzanne Finnamore
Dutton $24.95
Finnamore’s chronicled love, marriage and motherhood in earlier novels, but while those books tended to be a tad glib, she now reveals the heart, soul and acid funnybone of divorce in a memoir so on target that every page seems to ache. When her husband of five years announces he’s fallen in love with another woman, Finnamore’s life earthquakes, leaving her a devastated single mother struggling to find her way back to solid ground. As Finnamore navigates the Kubler Ross stages of denial, anger, bargaining, grief and acceptance, she crafts a story that’s hugely sympathetic, razor smart, and undeniably brave.

A Short History of the American Stomach
by Frederick Kaufman
Harcourt $23
Americans’ love affair with stuffing and starving themselves actually began with the Pilgrims, who would enthusiastically fast against idleness or disrespect and then go on to binge themselves silly at feasts. Kaufman gives a droll gastronomic tour of everything from founding father foodies to the role of pornography in TV food shows to genetically altered Franken foods. Our relationship to food may be a dysfunctional one, but as this fascinating and funny book shows, it makes for absolutely delicious reading.

The Story of Forgetting
by Stefan Merrill Block
Random House $24.95
Author Block (he’s just 24) effortlessly twines three stunning story threads into a complex heartbreaker about memory, love and loss. Seventy-year-old Abel Haggard recounts his yearning adoration for his brother’s wife, his desperation to find his daughter, and his grief over his brother’s Alzheimer’s. Meanwhile, across the country, a teenage science nerd searches for clues to his mother’s own mental deterioration. The key that unites them all are the fantastical stories of a mythical kingdom where lack of memory is prized. Gorgeous, sensitive, and dare I say it, absolutely unforgettable.